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February 28, 2007
Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank
They are an almost unique couple.
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage.
On Jasmine's Israeli passport, it still says her marital status is "under investigation".
"Our marriage was a human thing. We just fell in love," says Jasmine. "The society around us is making it political."
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank
Posted by thdyck at February 28, 2007 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 20, 2007
Detailed analysis of ways to go long distances in space
The difficulty of SI is about energy. All happens as if one must pay on the side of energy what one did not spend on the side of travel duration. Let us consider the most favorable case. The propulsion is more effective when one ejects behind oneself the lightest possible projectile at the highest possible speed. The absolute optimum is thus reached when all the fuel is converted into photons (zero mass) collimated behind the spaceship. The only reaction allowing 100% conversion of fuel into photons is the reaction matter-antimatter. It would be then needed to collimate the photons in a gamma laser beam (“graser”) in the ideal case. Neither the antimatter fuel, neither its combustion, nor the gamma laser collimation are within reach of our current technology, but this sets the theoretical maximum.
Interstellar Ark :: Strange Paths
Posted by thdyck at February 20, 2007 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Corsican Che Guevara
This was interesting: it meant that the power of the Paoli legend is able, two centuries after his death, to unite the fragmented political factions of contemporary Corsica.
It's still a turbulent island - sometimes described as having Europe's "third independence war" - after those of northern Ireland and the Spanish Basque country.
Bombs go off constantly, and although the all-important tourist industry is rarely affected, nothing can paper over the continuing unrest.
For, although Paoli successfully ejected the Genoese, his pioneering democracy was soon destroyed - by France.
Once independent, Corsica is now a poor and often despised French province. And France's arrogant rule resulted, in the 1970s, in the rebirth of armed resistance.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | The Corsican Che Guevara
Posted by thdyck at February 20, 2007 | Comments (0) | TrackBack